Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has apologized before officials of Asian and African countries for crimes committed by the Japanese Army before and during the Second World War. Mr. Koizumi made the apology in an attempt to defuse tensions with China, where there is widespread anger over Japanese history textbooks the Chinese feel give insufficient recognition to Japan's colonial-era and wartime atrocities. Mr. Koizumi and Chinese president Hu Jintao are attending a summit of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta, Friday.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in cities across China over the past three weeks, protesting what they see as Japan's continued unwillingness to face up to crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army in the early 20th Century.

The Japanese prime minister made a very public apology for those abuses in Jakarta Friday, at the Asian-African summit. Despite the audience before him, Mr. Koizumi was aiming his remarks squarely at the people of China and their president, Hu Jintao.

Mr. Koizumi echoed an apology made by one of his predecessors 10 years ago.

"In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly those of Asian nations," he said. "Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility and with feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind."

The apology seems to have worked. President Hu, also attending the summit, has ended days of speculation by agreeing to meet Mr. Koizumi to discuss the two countries' differences.

Mr. Koizumi told reporters after his speech that the meeting is due to take place Saturday.

The controversy over the Japanese textbooks acted as a catalyst to reignite many long-standing points of contention between China and Japan, including territorial disputes and Tokyo's recent bid to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The dispute, and speculation over whether the two leaders would meet, had overshadowed preparations for the summit meeting. But the organizers have downplayed its effects on moves to bring the two continents into greater cooperation, saying part of the reason for having summits is to solve problems like this.

For decades world public opinion has been neither for nor against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now. -George Habash after the hijacking of three airliners at Dawson's Field in Jordan in 1970.

A few years later there will be more violent protests and China will ask Japan to apologize yet again. Yawn. Maybe the commie governtment should apologize to its own people for the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

do even know anyting about the Cultural Revolution....?????/?????the people the started the Cultural Revolution have been punished gang of four????dont forget that deng xiaoping was one of the people that suffered in the Cultural Revolution. he son was paralzed. and he was put in those funny hats where people bashed him

do even know anyting about the Cultural Revolution....?????/?????
the people the started the Cultural Revolution have been punished
gang of four????
dont forget that deng xiaoping was one of the people that suffered in the Cultural Revolution. he son was paralzed. and he was put in those funny hats where people bashed him

Zhou Enlai's daughter was also tortured by Red Guard. DXP's son is still crippled and now leads the Chinese para-olympic team. The Gang of Four was a totally different faction from the communist now - (although isn't JZM from Shanghai?)

AND Actions speak louder than words.

SO ARE THEY TRYING TO SAY JAPAN APOLOGIZED WHEN ON THE SAME DAY 160 OF THEIR POLITICIANS WENT TO WORSHIP WAR CRIMINALS AMONGST OTHERS, OF ALL PLACES BUT YAZAKUNI JINJU??

Japanese MPs visit war memorial
More than 160 Japanese lawmakers or their representatives have visited a controversial Japanese war shrine.

The visit comes amid mounting tensions with China, after weeks of protests over what China sees as Japan's failure to fully admit to wartime atrocities.

Cabinet member Taro Aso also took part in the spring-time ritual visit.

The Yasukuni shrine is dedicated to the 2.5 million Japanese who died in World War II, including convicted war criminals.

China, and other countries invaded by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, have long objected to visits to the shrine by officials, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Peace prayers

YASUKUNI SHRINE
Built in 1869 to honour victims of the Boshin Civil War
Now venerates the souls of 2.5m of Japan's war dead
Those enshrined include 14 Class A war criminals

The visit comes as Mr Koizumi's aides are trying to set up a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia to try to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Tensions began to mount two weeks ago, when Tokyo approved a set of controversial history textbooks which critics say do not acknowledge the extent of Japanese wartime brutality.

A spokesman for the MPs said the trip was intended to honour the dead and pray for peace, not to anger China.

"I think it is natural for Japan and individual citizens to pay respect to the souls and spirits of those who died," Takao Fujii, vice chairman of the group and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told correspondents.

"I think it's unfortunate that such issues are not understood by neighbouring countries such as China and South Korea," he said.

All but one of the MPs and their representatives are members of Mr Koizumi's ruling party.

Mr Koizumi has been making annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine since taking office in 2001, although he has not visited yet this year.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.u...fic/4471455.stm

A few years later there will be more violent protests and China will ask Japan to apologize yet again. Yawn. Maybe the commie governtment should apologize to its own people for the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

Young Chinese are taught about the atrocities committed by the Japanese during World War II. They are not however taught about the 17 official apologies that Japan has made to China over the last 30 years

You guys know full well that there are some things are off limits in every country - so you could at least stop sticking your noses into other peoples business (esspecially when you can't differentiate totally unrelated matters), and act like a wise ass.

If you have your beef with communism you can vent it off somewhere else, Im not going to defend Mao here, because its totally irrelevant. Like me telling you Americans not to have a Veterans day just because of the May Lai massacre.

And if you think that its the Communist party that makes Chinese feel this way, why don't you ask an American-Born-Chinese (preferably older than 30) what he thinks about Japanese.

QUOTE

Japanese government has apologized 17 times already! ROFL!

Are you blind or just stupid, read my earlier post. Or maybe you are a nice guy who accepts half ass apologies.

Groups of surviving war victims in the Netherlands (from the former Dutch East Indies) are still unsatisfied with the apology as the Japanese word used for 'apology' is a very light casual sorry; like you say when you accidentily stepped on someone's toes. The Japanese never uttered a very deep sorry/apology/remorse for the deeds perpetrated in WW2 in their opinion; as the Germans did.

A few years later there will be more violent protests and China will ask Japan to apologize yet again. Yawn. Maybe the commie governtment should apologize to its own people for the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

It's Mao Zedong's fault, not the Communist Party's fault!! Anyway, 99% of all Han Chinese in PRC LOVE the Communist government. Their current leader, Hu Jintao, is 1,000 times better than that idiot Mao Zedong .

The Cultural Revolution and 1989 Tiananmen Incident is clearly an internally matter.

One day justice should come for that and it would be dealt with, but no one who are non-Chinese or outsiders should comment or criticise about it.

One case is different to another, so don't bring the cases to together.

But the Japanese bringing evil upon our motherland during WW2 is a different incident. It is another country invading another, but more important it was one of the most evil atrocities in world history. Not just about invading China that simply, but using chemical and biological weapons to kill us Chinese. The Japanese Fascists uses the most horrorifying methods of mass-murder, raped incident women, killing innocent young and old people even at the surrender to the japs.

This evil, cannot be imagine to anyone in this world. The only people who suffered such atrocities are the Chinese, Korean, other Asians, Jews, and Eastern Europeans esp. the Poles, and some Western Europeans.

So the Americans would know nothing about being tested as dogs in a chamber that will kill you with chemical or biological toxins.

This evil commited by the evil jap fascists, emulate the actions of the Nazis, I would say far much worse.

Simplying apologising is good sign, but it blurs out, when there's no sincere to it (esp. when you have a bunch of policitians visiting the Shrine of evil, just after the PM's apology).

And maybe the apology was not sincere enough, but a disgust to win the Chinese Govt's assurance not to VETO the jap's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security. BUT NICE TRY.

From my point of view: the apology was at least a good sign from the japs to ease the tension, but more has to be done. Words have to be translated to action to be meaningful.

If you think about it again: the true problem is Japan, not China nor the rest of Asia. Whitewashing history books, making bizzare claims over nation's territorial sovereignty, and supporting the actions of evil committing by their ancestors is the true problem. IF NOT then do you think they are acceptable.

The actions of Japan, is not just about China Vs Japan, but against the Koreas, Russia and the Asia at large.

If the problem is with China. How can one country (Japan) have so many tensions with other countries too, just to name the Koreas, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia to cricitise the actions of evil of the japs.

Having disputes over Diaoyu Islands with China, over Dodko Islands with Sth Korea (an American ally too), over the Kuril Islands with Russia. That is probably why the japs are hated so much.

On the other hand, China had made progress with its disputes over territory with its neighbours. eg. Border line with Russia is now settled; resolving the border with India is having positive results; and having a agreed Code of Conduct with the related ASEAN countries over the Nansha Islands.

Well, I don't know why Japan cricitise China, that it should act like a civilised country. When Japan should consider that itself with its behaviour with its neighbour.

I know, the anti-jap protest turned out nasty. But think about it, if your people had been mass-murdered in the most horrifying method in the history of humanity and not resolved yet, then that is acceptable. When you have a group of people smashing each other just over a soccer match between Manchester United and AC Milan, then would that be acceptable too? I would say its called acting like hooligans.

It's Mao Zedong's fault, not the Communist Party's fault!! Anyway, 99% of all Han Chinese in PRC LOVE the Communist government. Their current leader, Hu Jintao, is 1,000 times better than that idiot Mao Zedong .

Although I appreciate ur defence, don't mislead ppl.
Hu is just a newbie, we still don't know a lot about him, let's see what he can do.
When the Cultural Revolution happened, Mao was too old to think things clear, no mentioning of ppl who longed for taking over his power. But we can't judge a person only from his blemishes, what Mao had done, were mostly good things. You find a leader that won(partly) a civil war of a great country from scratch(only peasant soldiers, no money, no weapons, no support from tycoons), then fought a number of countries who tried to attack or invade, while the West boycotted PRC in every aspect. During that time, we created atom bombs, nukes, rockets, satellites(nonetheless contributions from those great Chinese who were working in the US before). Economy didn't make any move yes, but Mao assured us a promising future with nukes and satellites.(don't tell he's militaristic if u know what situation PRC was in, problem is, if u don't create nukes ppl will nuke u) I'm not sure if communism is too bad and capitalism too good, but my grandfathers(father's dad and mother's dad) both support CCP(without money and parades though, only spiritually), father's dad was serving a warlord(who might hate the commies very much), and mother's dad was from a grand landlord family(who might be against the commies the most, since the commies took all their fortunes away). We know little about history, so we cannot talk much, I don't understand how the ignorant Yankees(who have a great history of nearly 300 years) and dumb Bhindians get all the Chinese history.

This is not a comment on whether Japan or China is right or wrong. Just to share a fact regarding Japan PM Koizumi's 'apology' at the Asia-African summit. The English translation of 'heartfelt apology' and 'deep remorse' as given to the international press is misleading. In actual fact, Kozaimi's had used the Japanese word 'owabi', which is a lighter form of apology, not used or accepted for sincere formal apologies in Japan. For truly sincere apologies, the Japanese would use and only accept the more formal and serious apology word 'shazai' (meaning atoning for misdeed/wrong). Hence, in using the lighter form 'owabi', Kozaimi's selective usage of a lighter form word says much about Japan's level of sincerity in making that public apology. Knowing how much importance the Japanese places on using the correct form and degree of word and setting, this supposed 'apology' smacks of mere lip service than anything, and attempts to hoodwink the international community.

This comment was submitted by a singoporean guy on BBC, can Ombiaz and Zepheris or other members here who understand Japanese confirm this.

The years of endless propaganda - the West is bad, the West is out to get China, the West is responsible for all of China's ills, the West invaded North Korea, the Cultural Revolution was a mere mistake, Communism still works, the CCCP was solely responsible for defeating the Japanese and defending China, Tiananmen cannot be commented on.

GOU GAI BU LIAO CHI SHI

I say this, all of your Chinese lives are nothing set against the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Your life is not important. I am serious. Go out and protest, not even protest, just comment at length on the Party in publication, and you will be punished, perhaps very severely. Pose serious enough threat to the CCCP, not even the country, and you will disappear for a long, long time because you need "reeducation". Torture, death. If somehow you manage to get a few thousand people together, you may even get killed without mercy, crushed by tanks or BTRs.

CCP has done it before, no reason they can't do it again. They will use the newer tanks this time, Type 98s by the Wan Shui Jun, again.

Don't think you are special, they won't do it.

Your lives are nothing. You are an peg in the economic machine. Two ways in which the CCP controls you to keep your mouth shut - aggressive nationalism, and bribery through economic release, but in a reckless and unprincipled manner.

Oh the Chinese are very verbal when in their own country. Bring them out into an international forum meeting face to face however, they shrink or put forward laughable ideas.

Your parliament is a rubber stamp. Why put on such an elaborate show, that stinks? Also I see the rows and rows of generals and dignitaries, many said to be families which are long-time communists, politics and corruption and nepotism and lack of meritocracy, stink smell stink.

What so call Japanese "apology" it depends on the translation. There are no identical word-to-word translation between Chinese/Japanese and English. The words used to express the meanings like "SORRY", "APOLOGY", and "REGRET" etc in Chinese and Japanese after translating into English can be misleading and makes people confused. Most of the western Media reporting that the Japanese has "apology" 17+n times is none sense by western standard too. In the past, when Japanese express some kind of "APOLOGY"-like gestures, Japanese uses the Chinese character term "shen- sheng(深省)" or "fan-sheng(反省)", the word "sheng(省)" literally means, "to think it over again", "to examine critically", or "to consider". so the term "shen-sheng(深省)" or fan-sheng(反省)", literally means, "to think it over again deeply", "to think it over again in an opposite way". This kind of wording is not an "APOLOGY" at all, instead, " shen- sheng(深省)" or " fan-sheng(反省)" can be used to refer to any doing that is not done in a right way or correct way. In most of the time that I know, when western media reporting this case they usually translates " shen- sheng(深省)" or " fan- sheng(反省)", into "REGRET" or "DEEPLY REGRET". In English, there is difference between "APOLOGY", and "REGRET too. They are not the same. Even assume " shen- sheng(深省) / fan- sheng(反省)" translate into "REGRET" is as correct, Japanese "REGRET" 17+n times can not say Japan has apologized 17+n times . In the time when Japan was saying " shen- sheng(深省) or " fan- sheng(反省)", western media reporting as Japanese "REGRET" instead of Japanese "APOLOGY", now the western media suddenly equate the words "REGRET" and "APOLOGY", say that Japan has apologized 17+n times, all I can say is that Japan is politically on the western camp, western medium stand on Japanese side when they are the reporting the related stories. They are doing this is to misleading or brainwashes the western people for politically purpose in order to develop a common ground of the support for future action again China according to western interest. So when the western medium on reporting China, Chinese people dont expect any fairness and justice from them. Just a ignore bbc , cnn, nyt, washington-post or what so ever propaganda stuff.

For those who understand Chinese, this is an artical explains about the latest Japanese what so call "APOLOGY". according to the artical, the Japanese official position, the lastest Japanese APOLOGY-like gesture is not particular for China and to China. So don't act as Japanese Government, Japan has apologized 17+n times.

The years of endless propaganda - the West is bad, the West is out to get China, the West is responsible for all of China's ills, the West invaded North Korea, the Cultural Revolution was a mere mistake, Communism still works, the CCCP was solely responsible for defeating the Japanese and defending China, Tiananmen cannot be commented on.

GOU GAI BU LIAO CHI SHI

I say this, all of your Chinese lives are nothing set against the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Your life is not important. I am serious. Go out and protest, not even protest, just comment at length on the Party in publication, and you will be punished, perhaps very severely. Pose serious enough threat to the CCCP, not even the country, and you will disappear for a long, long time because you need "reeducation". Torture, death. If somehow you manage to get a few thousand people together, you may even get killed without mercy, crushed by tanks or BTRs.

CCP has done it before, no reason they can't do it again. They will use the newer tanks this time, Type 98s by the Wan Shui Jun, again.

Don't think you are special, they won't do it.

Your lives are nothing. You are an peg in the economic machine. Two ways in which the CCP controls you to keep your mouth shut - aggressive nationalism, and bribery through economic release, but in a reckless and unprincipled manner.

Oh the Chinese are very verbal when in their own country. Bring them out into an international forum meeting face to face however, they shrink or put forward laughable ideas.

Your parliament is a rubber stamp. Why put on such an elaborate show, that stinks? Also I see the rows and rows of generals and dignitaries, many said to be families which are long-time communists, politics and corruption and nepotism and lack of meritocracy, stink smell stink.

The Communist Party of China will treat its citizens well if the citizens are loyal to the CCP, just like when the Chinese citizens are loyal to the Emperor. The CCP are not a bunch of murderers that kill people without reason. No government in the world can tolerate dissent and rebellion.

WesternDoctrineWinsWars, stop criticizing the PRC's political system or get your Western butt out of China & Far Eastern Strategic Issues!!!!!

The years of endless propaganda - the West is bad, the West is out to get China, the West is responsible for all of China's ills, the West invaded North Korea, the Cultural Revolution was a mere mistake, Communism still works, the CCCP was solely responsible for defeating the Japanese and defending China, Tiananmen cannot be commented on.

GOU GAI BU LIAO CHI SHI

I say this, all of your Chinese lives are nothing set against the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Your life is not important. I am serious. Go out and protest, not even protest, just comment at length on the Party in publication, and you will be punished, perhaps very severely. Pose serious enough threat to the CCCP, not even the country, and you will disappear for a long, long time because you need "reeducation". Torture, death. If somehow you manage to get a few thousand people together, you may even get killed without mercy, crushed by tanks or BTRs.

CCP has done it before, no reason they can't do it again. They will use the newer tanks this time, Type 98s by the Wan Shui Jun, again.

Don't think you are special, they won't do it.

Your lives are nothing. You are an peg in the economic machine. Two ways in which the CCP controls you to keep your mouth shut - aggressive nationalism, and bribery through economic release, but in a reckless and unprincipled manner.

Oh the Chinese are very verbal when in their own country. Bring them out into an international forum meeting face to face however, they shrink or put forward laughable ideas.

Your parliament is a rubber stamp. Why put on such an elaborate show, that stinks? Also I see the rows and rows of generals and dignitaries, many said to be families which are long-time communists, politics and corruption and nepotism and lack of meritocracy, stink smell stink.

funny u talking about propaganda. ur rhetoric about china and ccp is the perfect example of western propaganda. u have no idea of both what communism is and what the reality in china is, still less chinese history. yet due to propaganda u still blindly utter nosenses to chinese who know. what's the difference between ur rhetoric and shouting of frustration heard in psychiatric ward?

back to the topic about jap apologizing. an apology is only an apology when action is taken to show the sincerity. otherwise it's no more than empty lip service. not only has jap government NEVER done a single thing to compensate still living asian war victoms, but it has repeatedly denied responsibility by approving versions of school textbooks that progressivesly whitewashes war responsibilities and atrocities. also, jap government officials have, over the years, been to war shrines to worship jap war dead, including first class war criminals executed by the un. even this year, there's no exception. hours after that "apology" over one hundred jap officials again paid their tribute to that shrine! u call that apology!?

say if i chop off ur limb with an axe and later apologize to ur face, yet still display that bloody axe as a sacred family trophy, i guess u would feel just fine and safe eh?

The years of endless propaganda - the West is bad, the West is out to get China, the West is responsible for all of China's ills, the West invaded North Korea, the Cultural Revolution was a mere mistake, Communism still works, the CCCP was solely responsible for defeating the Japanese and defending China, Tiananmen cannot be commented on.

GOU GAI BU LIAO CHI SHI

I say this, all of your Chinese lives are nothing set against the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Your life is not important. I am serious. Go out and protest, not even protest, just comment at length on the Party in publication, and you will be punished, perhaps very severely. Pose serious enough threat to the CCCP, not even the country, and you will disappear for a long, long time because you need "reeducation". Torture, death. If somehow you manage to get a few thousand people together, you may even get killed without mercy, crushed by tanks or BTRs.

CCP has done it before, no reason they can't do it again. They will use the newer tanks this time, Type 98s by the Wan Shui Jun, again.

Don't think you are special, they won't do it.

Your lives are nothing. You are an peg in the economic machine. Two ways in which the CCP controls you to keep your mouth shut - aggressive nationalism, and bribery through economic release, but in a reckless and unprincipled manner.

Oh the Chinese are very verbal when in their own country. Bring them out into an international forum meeting face to face however, they shrink or put forward laughable ideas.

Your parliament is a rubber stamp. Why put on such an elaborate show, that stinks? Also I see the rows and rows of generals and dignitaries, many said to be families which are long-time communists, politics and corruption and nepotism and lack of meritocracy, stink smell stink.

I bet this "WesternDoctrineWinsWars" is a shitless Ahole jap, or some ass lickin peice of #### inbred in Alabama, who knows #### xcept sucking dicks.

I guess really what we need to apologize to him is that he was actually being borned to this world in a inbred shitless family and ##### by his brainless dad all year long. that is why he is retarded, I am amazed he can read.

Worse than the Nazis? The Japanese clearly did terrible things, but if we could measure evil by the number of deaths then the Nazis have no equal in ww2; especially on the eastern front.

Actually if we were to measure evil by the "number of deaths" then Stalin and Mao outrank Hitler. Check out the number of soviets civillians that were liquidated by Stalin during the purges and WW2 and the number of Chinese that succumbed under the pressures of Mao's Great Leap Forward.

"I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.""power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

Actually if we were to measure evil by the "number of deaths" then Stalin and Mao outrank Hitler. Check out the number of soviets civillians that were liquidated by Stalin during the purges and WW2 and the number of Chinese that succumbed under the pressures of Mao's Great Leap Forward.

u've got a point but to move forward u must forget the past so that the past can be remembered and any mistakes that were made dont be made again , china of today has been a up hill stuggle but its been worth the while, people may have died but today china is much wealthier and people live a better life

Unlike in many Afrcian countrys people die all year round year after year with no end and no progress, china had its world wars and civil wars now china has to become what the west became 50 years ago and thats a good economic power and a high and better standrad of living for its people

"The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the domes our helmets, and the believers our soldiers"

u've got a point but to move forward u must forget the past so that the past can be remembered and any mistakes that were made dont be made again , china of today has been a up hill stuggle but its been worth the while, people may have died but today china is much wealthier and people live a better life

Its a very difficult balance to strike between moving forward and not holding to the past and learning from history. The Japanese committed horrible war crimes. But the Japanese Army is not the only Asian army that committed mass atrocities. Other countries armies have committed atrocities, yet they are able to pay hommage to the dead.

I think that China's position vis-a-vis Japan's apology and the lack of historical accuracy in Japanese text books is compromised by the fact that official CHinese textbooks are also guilty of historical revisionism and minimizing important events (Great Leap Forward and Tianamen).

"I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.""power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

There is nothing I love more than a bunch of idiots with no apparent knowledge of history arguing over such a subject, which they know nothing about. It's pathetic to even attempt to compare the Great Leap Forward to Japanese atrocities. The GLF at worst says that Mao is an economic moron, that in his misguided mind, he truly thought he was doing what was best for China. To say that it is on the same level as purposeful massacres, rapes and torture can only come from scumbags and is a slap in the face of any honest and decent human being.

Granted, "atrocities" did occur in China (as it occurs everywhere else), however, only western propagandists think that in today and now, in modern day China, the Chinese government is lying about them. They certainly may be dodging the subject, but that is quite different than outright lying about it altogether. Not to mention the that these "atrocities" don't nearly compare both in their subhman nature nor scale to the Jap atrocities.

And the CCP certainly isn't erecting shrines to honour the guilty parties. But sometimes I wonder if certain people here would be more glad if they did. After all, it would justify their "oppressive Chinese regime" bullcrap.

It's Mao Zedong's fault, not the Communist Party's fault!! Anyway, 99% of all Han Chinese in PRC LOVE the Communist government. Their current leader, Hu Jintao, is 1,000 times better than that idiot Mao Zedong .

Then why do they still hang his portrait in Tianmmen Square and have a special resting place? I would love to beat his body, use it as a punching bag, then burn the body, take the ashes and through it in a river. I show no respect to people who brainwash others and kill thousands! About 100% of the peopel in North Korea love communsim too, you know why?? B/c they're brainwashed. I'm not saying China is brainwashed though. I guess the people of China are just blinded by the more economic freedoms given but they don't realize how many Falun Gong and Tibetans are suffering!

For decades world public opinion has been neither for nor against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now. -George Habash after the hijacking of three airliners at Dawson's Field in Jordan in 1970.

Mao Zedong made many mistakes in this life, but that cannot overshadow his accomplishments for the Chinese people in the earily periods. He made China a unified nation.

Mao was no a moron, he's a politician who believed in the wrong system. if you want me to go deeper into Marxism and Liberalism please say so, I can go on forever on that topic. otherwise I'm tired to type if noone's gonna read.

and those who thinks Jews suffered bad, only 6 million Jews died. 36 million Chinese (mostly innocent civilians) died during the japanese occupation of WWII.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed" - President Eisenhower

The years of endless propaganda - the West is bad, the West is out to get China, ...............

you know what, we know japan apolpgized, again! chinese news reported it, how can they miss it? the president had a meeting with japan's leaders overseas, and in the very same day, 80 japanese officals went to warship the war crimals, again! who would take their apology seriously?

you can accuse chinese been "brainwashed" on this issue, but what is your prove? how you explain the HK protests? they were demacratic, how can you explain south Korea protest? they are demacrtic, how can you explain those countless protests that happen in the chinese community around the world, from canada to germany, from france to US cities? they were living under demacrcy, far away from the "brainwash" land!

how come there is no protests 15 years ago? 10 years ago? how come china and japan had good relations even 6 years ago? there must be something happened, unless you go do a serious research on the issue, otherwise, don't even open your mouth, you are hurting the chinese people, you are doing something that just as bad as the japanese did in their history to the chinese people. no metter you against the CCP or other political reasons, this issue is not about CCP, it's about japan's war crime!

Read in a Singapore newspaper that the Japanese had used the Sino/Japanese character/word "owabi" not "shazai".These are of course Japanese pronounciations of the various Chinese ideograms(see an early post explaining the word/character meanings which both educated Chinese and Japanese can read immediately).So any excuse about language and semantics are apparently moot between the Chinese and Japanese intelligentsia and IMO ,the Japanese are playing word games to say that they have apologized when actually they have not-perhaps to lull Western /non-Asian audiences.

Zhou Enlai's daughter was also tortured by Red Guard. DXP's son is still crippled and now leads the Chinese para-olympic team. The Gang of Four was a totally different faction from the communist now - (although isn't JZM from Shanghai?)

AND Actions speak louder than words.

SO ARE THEY TRYING TO SAY JAPAN APOLOGIZED WHEN ON THE SAME DAY 160 OF THEIR POLITICIANS WENT TO WORSHIP WAR CRIMINALS AMONGST OTHERS, OF ALL PLACES BUT YAZAKUNI JINJU??
Japanese MPs visit war memorial
More than 160 Japanese lawmakers or their representatives have visited a controversial Japanese war shrine.

The visit comes amid mounting tensions with China, after weeks of protests over what China sees as Japan's failure to fully admit to wartime atrocities.

Cabinet member Taro Aso also took part in the spring-time ritual visit.

The Yasukuni shrine is dedicated to the 2.5 million Japanese who died in World War II, including convicted war criminals.

China, and other countries invaded by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, have long objected to visits to the shrine by officials, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Peace prayers

YASUKUNI SHRINE
Built in 1869 to honour victims of the Boshin Civil War
Now venerates the souls of 2.5m of Japan's war dead
Those enshrined include 14 Class A war criminals

The visit comes as Mr Koizumi's aides are trying to set up a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia to try to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Tensions began to mount two weeks ago, when Tokyo approved a set of controversial history textbooks which critics say do not acknowledge the extent of Japanese wartime brutality.

A spokesman for the MPs said the trip was intended to honour the dead and pray for peace, not to anger China.

"I think it is natural for Japan and individual citizens to pay respect to the souls and spirits of those who died," Takao Fujii, vice chairman of the group and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told correspondents.

"I think it's unfortunate that such issues are not understood by neighbouring countries such as China and South Korea," he said.

All but one of the MPs and their representatives are members of Mr Koizumi's ruling party.

Mr Koizumi has been making annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine since taking office in 2001, although he has not visited yet this year.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.u...fic/4471455.stm

These shrines don't only hold Imperialists you know! Even though someone did something bad you should still bury them or whatever! Note that the Japanese people were brainwashed, just like the Germans in WWII. They were forced to do these things and it was sick. I hope the Emporer of Japan in WWII is rotting hell for what the Japanese did in WWII!

For decades world public opinion has been neither for nor against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now. -George Habash after the hijacking of three airliners at Dawson's Field in Jordan in 1970.

Good. So you know the shrine not only contains those WWII Japs, but also from the invasion of China 1894-5 (massacre of Chinese in city of Lushun, or known as Mukin anyone? ), and also invasion of port arthor in Russio-Japan war. More Jap invaders to pay prilgrimage to. How nice.....

Good. So you know the shrine not only contains those WWII Japs, but also from the invasion of China 1894-5 (massacre of Chinese in city of Lushun, or known as Mukin anyone? ), and also invasion of port arthor in Russio-Japan war. More Jap invaders to pay prilgrimage to. How nice.....

Not only them, but people who died in the multiple civil wars across Japan during the Meiji era, even though these people did bad things, you still pay respect to them, the Pope forgave the guy who tried to KILL him!!!

For decades world public opinion has been neither for nor against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now. -George Habash after the hijacking of three airliners at Dawson's Field in Jordan in 1970.

Not only them, but people who died in the multiple civil wars across Japan during the Meiji era, even though these people did bad things, you still pay respect to them, the Pope forgave the guy who tried to KILL him!!!

Unfortunately there isn't that many pope on earth. Pope is hard to come by even in this universe. And, the one that did forgive his killer is dead!

These shrines don't only hold Imperialists you know! Even though someone did something bad you should still bury them or whatever! Note that the Japanese people were brainwashed, just like the Germans in WWII. They were forced to do these things and it was sick. I hope the Emporer of Japan in WWII is rotting hell for what the Japanese did in WWII!

to be point out, the shrine was not a issue before 1985, chinese people and other aisan people don't see it as an offense before 1985. even the japanese soilders were the victim of the WW2, not mention those millions japanese civilians that suffered in japan during the war.we respect them just like anybody else.

what has happened in 1985? japan government move 14 class-A war crimals, thousands of class-B war crimals into the shrine, who were the internationally recognized war crimals of the ww2! there were countless solutions to avoid the mess, such as get them out into sepreate shrine, avoiding government officials warship them, but japanese government ignored all of them, although for sometime, government officials was porbidden to go, but it's a time bomb waiting to explove.

Even after 1985, for quite long time until 1996, china maintained good relations with japan, why? because no japanese high officials publicly went there! ! until 1996(or98), their highest official, the preminister, went to the shrine, intensed the situation once again, and current japanese preminister just made things even worse, he went to there every single year!

also to be point out, Mr.Kim Jong-il Hater, were you forgive them, if you still can dig out a hole in your backyard and find chemcial weapon warheads lying there that might leak and kill you in a sec? well, it still happens in china! those things should not be happenning after 60 years! why? japanese government even till today, still not willing to give out those secrets bury gorounds when they retreat after the war! it for covering up their war crime using chemcial warfairs, since been baned after WW1 by international law! we know they used it in WW2, but nobody knows how many they produced, even more than Nazi? we don't know, certainly japan does not want the world know it. the war is finished 60 years ago, , but this war is far from over,our people still dying for the war crime that japan commit decades ago.

it is not we chinese, or our government make japan looks bad, they are BAD!